Today is a big holiday for all of us. This is without exaggeration, because we are celebrating our third anniversary, despite the hardships and difficulties, we come together, regardless of life's difficulties, and see each other smiling and joyful. Fifteen years ago, the history of creating good deeds that really help other people began. During this time, almost everything has changed, except, in fact, the idea and goal of our work - to reach everyone who needs our help. And now is the time to look back, think and remember what entries have appeared in this history recently.
The last year that the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation “Hesed Besht” spent together with its clients, friends and partners seemed extremely difficult. But analyzing this time, one can see that the more difficult it was for us, the more good achievements followed. And this is evidence of the importance of our work, as well as an example of Universal Justice, which our organization always professes: the more good is done selflessly, the more good will return. Personally, I have always been convinced of this. And today everyone can see for themselves this simple truth, taking the life path of our organization as an example.
The beginning of the year made us all feverish with unrest in the country. The Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation “Hesed Besht” has always defended the positions of peace and goodness, dialogue and openness for the common good. And for the first time in the history of our organization, the time came when all managers had to work in conditions of increased readiness for something extremely bad. We understood that the general tension in society was reflected in our clients, especially the elderly, who take unrest extremely close to their hearts. The managers of the Foundation were preparing for a systemic and protracted crisis, plans were being developed for the purchase of essential items and food that could be needed in the most difficult times. But along with this, we did not stop working on building our future. With the assistance of benefactors, the issue of premises in the city of Ternopil finally moved forward. We could not and did not want to miss an opportunity that was not there from the very beginning: Jews cannot be sad, our thousand-year-old wisdom says so. Therefore, preparing for the worst in the country, we took the risk of starting the reconstruction of our own premises in Ternopil. And we were not mistaken - at the end of the summer, the Ternopil City Community Center successfully began its work for clients of the entire Ternopil region.
Even the worst predictions about the crisis did not come true. However, the irreparable happened - blood was shed. And this unfortunate fate also touched our community. Our client and youth leader Oleksandr Abayev, who was pulling the "sky hundreds" out of Institutskaya Street, returned from Kyiv wounded but alive. The boy's serious injury was not treatable, although our doctors and volunteers did everything possible for this. With the assistance of the Foundation, the victim managed to fly to Israel for treatment, and we continued to help the victims, of whom there were many. We called on all those dependent on us for peace and dialogue with all who tried to sort out their relations during the transitional stage of state formation.
Despite the unrest, with the help of the Almighty, our community managed to celebrate Purim, Tu B'Shvat, and Pesach. We were spared the provocations that filled society. Although the antics of unknown hooligans are still reminded of by the lighter-colored areas of paint on the facade of the Thiya Community Center, which appeared in place of intolerant "graffiti". For the first time in history, the only monument in Ukraine to the victims of the 1919 pogrom was desecrated. However, the painted base of the memorial accelerated the process of its renovation. At the expense of local patrons from the community, the memorial on the grave of our ancestors, valuable for history and even more valuable for our memory, was completely renovated.
During the year, relations with partner organizations also strengthened. We began work on creating a network of social partners, which is designed to improve the standard of living of citizens, promote the development of society and improve the quality of service provision for all participants in this unification process. The basis was the signing of a social partnership agreement between the network participants, which contributes to improving the coordination of our actions and coherence in the work of individual organizations.
In the middle of the year, a new problem arose before all of us, even more complex and threatening. In the entire history of the organization's activities, there have never been situations when the phrase "the main thing is that there is no war" did not belittle the significance of some difficulties in work or life. Unfortunately, now it is no longer possible to say so. The situation that has developed in the far east has affected not only our wallets in the form of rising prices. The Fund has joined in supporting the displaced.
This year, youth and family camps were not held on the seashore. However, we managed to hold a camp for clients in the picturesque forests of Cherkasy region, and a family Shabbaton in the unspoiled Carpathians. Our people found a way out of every, even the most difficult, situation, but anxiety does not allow us to rest carefree. None of the volunteers of our Foundation thought that their help would be useful to the Armed Forces in preparing military equipment for border defense. But while there is still a peaceful sky above us, we are all doing everything in our power to bring good back to where chaos and bloodshed now reign.
By the Victory Day over fascism, through joint efforts, we managed to put in order the Holocaust Memorial on Silskohospodarska Street. There is still a lot of work to be done here, but already this complex looks as it should look like a memorial site of the death of eight thousand two hundred of our brothers. Also, volunteers and with the assistance of the Foundation cleaned up all the cemeteries and sectors where our ancestors rest. After all, without respect for the past and the memory of our predecessors, there is no hope for a bright future.
The website of the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation “Hesed Besht” was open to Internet users all year long, covering the organization’s activities in all corners of the world. The virtual page contains a lot of useful information: there are videos and audio materials, and photos from the most enchanting events are uploaded to the “Day by Day” gallery.
It is impossible to capture everything at once. Only the brightest memories always emerge in memory. However, these are only moments, perhaps individual days. The useful deeds that are done daily by the employees of the Fund for People merge into a continuous picture of warm pastel tones of goodness that comes from a pure heart. Many times during the year we heard sincere words of gratitude, which encouraged and gave us strength to work even better. We looked at the results of our work, were proud of them and thought: "This is good. Next time we must do even better." And that is why today we are all celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of our Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation "Hesed Besht."
As the director of the organization, I want to sincerely thank all employees for another year of work. Remember that we can do much more when our hearts are filled with love for our neighbors. I want to thank our clients for their gratitude, for their sincere words, which are the measure of our work, and even for the criticism that helps make the services more effective. I want to thank all the good people who remember the commandments of "Tsdakah" and "Mitzvah" and donate to help those in need. It is my pleasure to congratulate you all on the holiday and wish you happiness, goodness and love. After all, as long as we are all together, we have something to live for, something to love and something to strive for.
With best wishes,
Director
HBF "Hesed Besht"
Honored Employee
social sphere of Ukraine
Igor Ratushny
